Author Topic: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x  (Read 1981 times)

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Offline pipplater

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My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« on: March 16, 2011, 23:38:52 pm »
Ok, I have a very unhappy baby  :( I have been posting on the sleeping board but also have had concerns about intolerances and have just noticed this board! I have thought about all the symptoms and wondered if you lovely people could give me your opinions?

H is 4 months old and is breastfed, however I wanted to give her one bottle a day so gave her formula at about 6 weeks and boy was she sick! Projectile across the bed about 2 hours later! I tried a further 2 times over the next few weeks with the same result.

So she is breastfed but has the following symptoms:

*bottle green, mucus, watery poos. They explode out of her with noise and always leak out of the nappy, usually up her back, sometimes as far as her neck!
*Loud farting, this can wake her up
*her night wakenings are always with her raising her legs up and then slamming then onto the matress over and over
*intermittent congestion at the back of the nose/throat
*rubbing nose and eyes (especially when tired)
*red eyes and eyebrows
*sneezing
*general unhappiness  :( rarely smiles
*goes from happy to extremely unhappy very quickly
*poor sleeping at night
*does not nap for more than 45minutes
*when crying body goes rigid
*reflux
*posetting after feeding (although this happens less recently)
*back arching
*jerky arms and legs all the time

In addition to this her dad had a milk allergy as a child. His mum says that this was a disaccharide allergy and that he couldn't have breast milk or formula and had some substitute milk....

However she has great weight gain and shows no symptoms on her skin.

She is just so unhappy and cries so much, she is so tired all the time. I'm not sure whether to go back to the GP again or to try eliminating/reducing the dairy in my diet to see if it has an effect - although this seems very hard to do...

Thanks in advance x

Offline deb

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2011, 23:42:13 pm »
It is hard to eliminate dairy completely, but I would go ahead and try it ASAP. I'd also steer clear of soy, as many babies with dairy problems also are allergic to or intolerant of soy. It takes about 2 weeks to clear the system, so don't expect instant results, but if you see significant improvement in a day or two you know you're on to something.

Offline pipplater

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2011, 23:50:22 pm »
Thanks for your quick reply!

I think I know I have to try it but am kind of worried how restrictive it will be, especially cooking for the rest if the family. I'm already craving dairy and I haven't even started it!!

Offline deb

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2011, 01:32:03 am »
We have almost no dairy here to speak of - meat and veg and fruit, very little grains. It's hard at first but there are so many people on the food allergy board who can give you tips on alternatives to dairy. For cooking and and the little bit of baking we do instead of butter OR oil I use coconut oil (super-yummy AND healthy! :)) Drinks are almost all water and some VERY diluted juice (OK, DH and I have beer and wine, but obviously not the kids LOL). We have fish once or twice a week and eggs out the wazoo, whatever veg I can come up with, and we make our own salad dressings with oil and vinegar and a bit of stevia or honey and herbs and spices, so not even creamy dressing unless we really want some. Preparing food from scratch really was challenging at first but it has made a HUGE difference for us, even though we eat this way for reasons other than dairy allergy. I did find bread we can eat, but we eat so little bread that I can buy in bulk and freeze it, or just make my own. (Kids love to help cook when they're old enough, BTW!)

Currently, the only dairy we regularly consume is yogurt (I make my own); the culturing seems to make it digestible for us so there aren't any, um, digestive after-effects - our dairy issue is intolerance but not outright allergy; you might be able to get at least yogurt into her after you've been off dairy long enough though. No cheese, ice cream, none of that.

So if you're really stuck on dairy then yes, it CAN be hard to get off of - but the human body doesn't really need the stuff once we're past babyhood, and milk from other animals doesn't always agree with human babies, especially after all the processing that most milk goes thru to get to the grocery store - it's a whole other substance than what comes out of the cow.  :)

Offline Buntybear

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2011, 18:43:49 pm »
Hi, yes that def sounds like a milk allergy or intolerance. Olly had the same vomiting after formula.

There are plenty of us who have done it so if you need any tips just let us know!

Offline pipplater

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2011, 19:38:01 pm »
Thanks for your reply. I do think it is an intolerance rather than an allergy.

I have decided to cut out the obvious dairy from tomorrow. The challenge for me will be the milk on my cereal and in my tea (I LOVE tea and not horrid fruit tea!) and chocolate! The cheese, ice cream and yoghurt I can live without.

I do usually cook from scratch for the family (husband and 4 year old daughter) so dinners are usually meat and vegetables so that shouldn't be too hard. Might even lose the last couple of pounds of baby weight too!!

So... What to have for breakfast?!

Would be grateful for anyone's input and encouragement x

Offline firsttimemummy

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2011, 19:50:00 pm »
I am doing a dairy free diet at the moment as think DS is intolerent (DS1 is doing dairy free diet too but we only figured out his dairy problems once he was fully weaned).

Not sure where you are but in the UK food labels are pretty good.  The main odd places to find dairy (that I have come across) are ham, etc and salt and vinegar crisps! You will be pleasantly suprised at how many things dont have dairy,such as bread, mayonnaise, ginger nut biscuits (I found that one today!).

Lots of people that can't tolerate milk protein also have problems with soya (MPSI - milk protein and soya intolerence) so you may want to cut that out.  The main source is almost every shop bought sliced bread (bagels and part-baked baguettes are soya free).

For breakfast I am having porridge made with oat milk which is really nice; you can use oat milk (or maybe soya milk) for cereal, etc.  Also, eggs are good (they are not dairy which some people think!!), if you like them.  I also love bagels with Pure dairy free spread (the yellow tub).

My main loss with be Cadbury's chocolate, but like you say, that is maybe not a bad thing!

Good luck x
L x Having a bw break from 1 Feb 2012 - if you want to get in touch please send me a pm.  I may not be here but you are all in my thoughts xxxx (probably be back some time)

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Offline pipplater

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2011, 20:51:25 pm »
Hi Lucy, thanks for the info. I am in the UK too so hopefully labelling here will make it easier..

How long have you been dairy free? I see that your little one is only 3 weeks so I'm guessing you are only a couple of weeks in. What improvement have you seen? Harriet has been asleep for an hour and a half and I've just been up to her as she was crying, her knees were to her chest and she's so obviously in pain. I so hope I can make it better for her.

Offline jakobsmommy

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2011, 21:02:54 pm »
Sainsburys are great - if you contact them they will send you a list of everything in store that is milk free.

the symptoms sound a lot like my friends little girl who was breastfed, she was severely underweight too though and ended up as dairy and gluten allergic, not intolerant. poor little baby also has hip dysplasia...but since her diet changes has been extremely happy x

good luck and i hope its only an intolerance as there are some great lactofree products now which we use for my 15m old.  He is ok on formula (hipp organic only) and with bits of cheese/ butter but cant cope with cows milk on cereal and particularly not yogurts for some reason...we have the projectile vomit with that   :0(

Offline firsttimemummy

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Re: My unhappy baby's symptoms, your opinions please x
« Reply #9 on: March 17, 2011, 21:10:38 pm »
Yes, UK labels are now really good and it doesn't take long to find if items contain milk.  Ready Brek is a good source of calcium (although I can't stand the odd texture) - I take calcium supplement anyway so not too worried about it.

Only started dairy free a few days ago as I felt that Oliver was sometimes bring up a lot of milk and it was quite mucousy so reckoned it would be dairy (Murray used to always have a "cold" and only when we stopped the cows milk he was on, due to an ear infection, did it clear, then start again as soon as we started him back on milk; I can't tolerate cold cows milk but anything else is fine.  Murray doing dairy free trial so not sure how much he can tolerate).

Oliver still gets pains etc but I think most little babies do.  I am just being overcautious as if there is a chance of him having problems with dairy I would rather eliminate it for a while then see again.  Having a new baby is hard enough without causing other potential problems.  The few times he has had formula he seemed upset too (although not sure if was due to formula as didn't want to admit to self it could be dairy!!). Since having no dairy he isn't being as sick and when he burps he isn't bringing up much or gagging nearly as much.

Good luck with your dairy free trial - if you want a list of brands that are suitable, etc just let me know and I will tell you what we use.  Hopefully your LO will outgrow the dairy problems, if it is that.  Certainly doesn't do any harm trying it .....

Hopefully in terms of the 45 min naps etc the boards here can help.  I didn't find BW last time until Murray was around 4 months and he changed from a nightmare boy who would NOT sleep during the day to a little baby who slept well (and still does) and is healthy and happy :)
L x Having a bw break from 1 Feb 2012 - if you want to get in touch please send me a pm.  I may not be here but you are all in my thoughts xxxx (probably be back some time)

still happily married, just not counting!